Model Code in Force: What Can Still Be Done
On 5 March a general election is announced and the Model Code of Conduct takes effect in District X. On 12 March the executive engineer reports that a piped-water scheme funded under a centrally sponsored mission is 96% complete: 1,180 of 1,240 households already have functional taps, and the balance work needs nine days. The local MLA, now a candidate, writes asking to inaugurate the scheme on 20 March and to hand out 300 sanction letters for new connections at the venue. Separately, the district proposes to institute a new 'Best Village Water Committee' award with Rs 5 lakh in prize money, to be announced on 25 March. Families are already drawing water from the completed portion.
1. Classify each of the three proposed actions - completing and commissioning the scheme, the inauguration with sanction-letter distribution, and the new award - as permissible, permissible with conditions, or deferred. Give the reasoning for each.
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Work already sanctioned and in progress - permissible. The code does not halt continuing schemes. The remaining nine days of pipeline work and commissioning by the engineering staff should proceed and be completed, because stopping a 96%-complete water supply would harm residents and is itself a governance failure.
Inauguration by a candidate plus public distribution of sanction letters - not permissible as proposed. A function presided over by a contesting candidate, funded from public money and publicising a scheme, is exactly the kind of advantage the code seeks to remove. Two conditions must be separated:
- Handover to users: officials may complete it quietly, with no political branding, no ribbon, no public meeting.
- Sanction letters: if the beneficiary list was finalised and approved before 5 March, officials may distribute them at the office window; if the list is being drawn up now, treat it as a fresh benefit and defer.
New award - deferred. This is a new scheme announced after the code took effect. It needs clearance from the Chief Electoral Officer and, absent that, must wait until the code is lifted. The prize money makes it a fresh pecuniary benefit, not routine administration.
2. The MLA's office argues: 'The water is already flowing, so the inauguration is only ceremonial and harms nobody.' Write the nodal officer's reply in four to five lines.
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Sir/Madam, the scheme's benefits are not in dispute - the water is flowing and the balance work will be completed on schedule by the engineering staff. The objection is to the event, not the water: a public function presided over by a contesting candidate, at public cost, converts an ongoing scheme into election publicity. Officials will therefore complete and hand over the scheme without ceremony and will distribute only those sanction letters approved before the code came into force. A request for the ceremony has been placed before the Returning Officer, and the district will act as directed. Regards, Nodal Officer.
3. A junior officer suggests keeping the award 'on file' by announcing it to the press only, without a formal order or money. Is this a workable way around the restriction? Explain.
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No. The code regulates the effect, not the paperwork. A press announcement of a named award, made by the district during the code period, still associates the administration with a benefit timed to the campaign, and doing it without an order or budget makes it worse - it is an unauthorised commitment that will either be honoured in breach of the code or withdrawn after the election, causing avoidable embarrassment. The correct course is procedural: record the proposal, obtain the Chief Electoral Officer's clearance if the district believes it is genuinely routine and non-discriminatory, and announce only after clearance or after the code is lifted. Test to apply: would a reasonable elector see this as the administration helping one candidate? If yes, defer.